Bellows & Company

Bellows & Company

Bellows & Company provides nonprofit management, development and communications consulting services to help our clients build stronger communities and achieve positive social change.

About

Shenna Bellows is the President of Bellows & Company. Shenna was the 2014 Democratic candidate for United States Senate in Maine. She is the former Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine. In that leadership role, she developed a track record for building unusual coalitions with Republicans and Democrats alike to pass groundbreaking privacy and civil rights laws.

Shenna has been involved in leading four statewide referendum campaigns in Maine including the successful 2012 Mainers United for Marriage campaign to legalize marriage for gay and lesbian couples and the 2011 Protect Maine Votes campaign to restore same day voter registration.

Shenna is an experienced coalition builder. She was a founding member of the Maine Immigrants Rights Coalition. She spearheaded the creation of Republicans for the Freedom to Marry in Maine. She has served on the Coalition for Maine Women and the Maine Choice Coalition. She also was an active leader in the Maine Freedom of Information Coalition and the Right to Know Advisory Committee.

Shenna has received numerous awards and recognition for her leadership from organizations including the University of Maine Women’s Studies Department, Mabel Wadsworth Women’s Health Center, the American Association of University Women, the Frances Perkins Center and the Maine Democratic Party.

Shenna is a former volunteer with the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps VISTA. She is a graduate of Middlebury College. She lives in Manchester, Maine.

Nonprofit Management

Bellows & Company can work with your business or organization to provide interim management or help your organization manage change through coaching or strategic planning.

Bellows & Company offers the following management services

Interim Executive Director

Coalition building and management

Coaching

Strategic planning

Interim Executive Director

As an experienced nonprofit executive director, Shenna Bellows has served in the interim executive director role and excelled. She can run your day to day operation to keep a well functioning organization on track while the search for a permanent executive director takes place, or she can work with the Board of Directors and staff leadership to identify and manage key changes to help a struggling organization right itself before bringing on new leadership. Bellows excels in staff development and facilitating difficult budgeting and fundraising conversations. She has a proven track record in analyzing and helping organizations balance budgets.

Coalition building and management

No one organization or one person can achieve positive social change alone. Bellows & Company can work with you to strengthen your coalition of support for your most important issue. Bellows & Company can also facilitate assessment, strategic planning or team-building sessions for coalitions that are struggling to move forward. Sometimes, a coalition leader needs individual coaching or facilitation skills training. Bellows & Company can work with your non-profit CEO or coalition representative to become a more effective coalition leader.

Executive coaching

Even the best leaders need trustworthy leadership advice or coaching through a challenging time. Bellows & Company is skilled in coaching and training people to be effective leaders. Bellows & Company can help your organization's leaders become stronger fundraisers or leaders within your organization via training or individualized one on one coaching.

Strategic planning

Does your work align well with your goals? Are you deploying your organizational resources in the most effective way possible to achieve your vision for positive social change? Strategic planning is a necessary step in developing the way forward for positive change, and it can be done without depleting too much vital staff time or volunteer energy. Bellows & Company can work with your organization to efficiently and effectively develop a strategic plan to guide your work forward.

Communications

Bellows & Company can work with you to help you tell your story most effectively to a broader community.

Bellows & Company can partner with you in:

Communications planning

Communications coaching & training

Communications planning

Are you doing great work, but no one knows about it? Bellows & Company will work with you to create an effective communications plan. We’ll help your team develop and refine your message. We can also work with you to design effective messaging and create a plan for broadcasting those messages to the larger community through the media and online.

Communications coaching and training

Are you preparing for an important speech or media event? Could your senior leadership team use media training? Bellows & Company can help you prepare and coach you to deliver your message memorably and effectively.

Development

Bellows & Company can work with your board, your executive director or key development staff to grow your donor community and the resources you need to effect positive social change.

Bellows & Company can assist you in:

Interim management services

Fundraising strategy & planning

Fundraising coaching & training

Interim management services

Are you facing a significant organizational transition? Do you need assistance in managing your organization's finances and donor relationships on an interim basis? Bellows & Company can provide interim management services to ensure that your organization remains on solid financial ground during organizational transitions.

Fundraising strategy & planning

Is your non-profit organization stuck in a fundraising rut? Do you face potential deficits because of unexpected revenue shortfalls? Bellows & Company can work with you to assess the strengths and weaknesses of your current fundraising programs, identify strategies to strengthen your relationships with donors and create a viable fundraising plan to be successful.

Fundraising coaching & training

Most non-profit executive directors and board members enter into non-profit service because they love the mission, not because they love fundraising. Bellows & Company can work with your organizational leadership to overcome any fears about fundraising and build your internal fundraising capacity. Whether your executive director needs one-on-one coaching, your board president needs someone to accompany her on a major donor meeting or your board of directors needs a fundraising training, Bellows & Company can help your leadership team succeed at fundraising.